Sean Salisbury: Henne won't ever be elite

Well, as long as I'm telling you what former NFL quarterbacks and current pundits are saying on radio shows about the Miami Dolphins quarterback situation (see previous post), I figured I'd give you Sean Salisbury's take on Chad Henne.

Salisbury visited my radio show, Armando and the Amigo, this week prior to Henne's benching in Miami. And he basically said Henne will be a solid quarterback in this league.

But never an elite quarterback.

Salisbury, as you can hear on the audio file below, agreed with me that Henne is hard to define because of all the problems that have been happening around him during his 21 games as Miami's starter.

"You and I have pretty much been on the same page," Salisbury said. "I got a message this week from a friend and we were talking about it, and I know the people in South Florida are on Dan Henning and the rest of it. But with Chad, I said the same exact thing almost to a T. I said, 'You know what, the jury is still out.' ... I DVR all the games I can't watch live and I watch and then re-watch them during the week. And, you know, at times I look at Chad and say this is a superstar about to happen. And then the next week I say, 'Is he going to be a star? Is he even going to be able to hold down a job? Is this their future?

"And you know, you guys know me, I'm not a fence-sitter. If I thought Chad sucked I'd say, 'They gotta get a new quarterback.' They need to say that in a bunch of different places. I thought he was going to be great, but I don't know. I've watched him enough. I've seen him make enough throws to know the guy can play. But I've also seen him do some things and make some decisions and make some throws and make some boneheaded decisions to say, 'He's a backup in this league.'

" ... So put it this way, Chad Henne is not ever going to be a guy that carries a franchise on his back like Miami's been used to a whole bunch of years ago when No. 13 was there -- that whenever everything else was going wrong, the quarterback will carry you. I think Chad is a really, really good player when he's got people around him that are making plays, also. So if that makes sense, he's not a Kurt Warner. Kurt Warner could carry a team in Arizona. He leaves and they go to hell in a hand basket. There's quarterbacks that can do that. But there's also quarterbacks you say, 'Ok, this is a guy that's good for us. He's going to go 18 out of 27, throw a touchdown, and we're going to be efficient.' I think Chad can be that guy with an every-now-and-then 300-yard spectacular performance.

"I don't believe you're ever going to look at him and say, 'We're going to load it on [his] back and that's going to be on him.' Chad needs to have a team that runs the football and is going to have guys make some plays for him. I don't think he's going to be that guy you say, 'We're going to franchise him or he's worth $50, $60 million.' I don't think he's that quarterback. But I do think he's a starter in this league."

Salisbury addressed other interesting things during the interview. For instance, he believes the Dolphins are going to be a factor going forward.

"I can assure you they will disrupt the playoff picture before they're done," he said.

And, of course, if you are the mood, you can always listen to me live on Armando and the Amigo weekday mornings from 6-10 a.m. on 640-Sports in South Florida, or live streaming online here or off the podcast that is available on iTunes and the site (check the site for the link.)